David Edgerton


David Russell Edgerton Jr. was an American entrepreneur and the founder of the Burger King Corporation, in what would become the second largest burger chain after McDonald's After serving as a manager of another restaurant Howard Johnsons, on March 1, 1954 he opened a franchise outlet of the restaurant chain Insta Burger King in Miami, Florida. On June 1 of the same year, he met fellow restaurateur James McLamore and the two founded the Burger King Corporation. After leaving Burger King, he went on to start Bodega, a steakhouse restaurant.

Biography

Edgerton was born the eldest of 2 children to David Edgerton Sr., an itinerant hotel operator, and Blanche Berger, a concert violinist. After initially being interested in becoming a stage manager and serving a stint in the army, he curtailed that career to become a restaurateur, after graduating from Cornell University, he attended Northwestern University, where he started his endeavor running a pie-making business that served mainly students on-campus. He then worked accounting for a hotel chain Albert Picks Hotel Group based in Chicago. He returned to Florida to become manager of Howard Johnson's Restaurants, which had locations in Miami and Orlando. At the time, he became interested in opening a dairy queen, with a burger section, when he met business partner and fellow restaurateur and Cornell University alumni James McLamore, and they developed Insta-Burger King, the forerunner of the concept of the Burger King model of fast service, limited menu and low prices, and customers coming in to the restaurant to pay for orders in advance, as opposed to the traditionally method of carhops attending customers directly bringing their orders to their vehicles, after 12 years with Burger King, he established the Bodega Steakhouse Restaurant Chain which had locations throughout Florida, Chicago, Detroit and Dallas, until selling in 1978. After in 1985, he brought further restaurants throughout San Francisco and Monterey, before in 1993 purchasing shares in 3 Fuddrukers Restaurants. He also served on the advisory board of Avantcare, Inc.